care of

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English

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Alternative forms

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  • (abbreviation)
  • (abbreviation) c/-
  • (abbreviation) c/o

Etymology

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Short for in the care of or similar phrase.

Preposition

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care of

  1. (mail) For distribution by (the named intermediary).
    Could you please send this package to Mr. John Smith, care of the Northwest Shelter?

Usage notes

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Care of, usually abbreviated as on envelopes, signifies an intermediary who is responsible for transferring a piece of mail between the postal system and the final recipient. For example, when the final recipient (person or business A) has no address itself, the mail sender may want an intermediary (person or business B) who has an address to manually forward the mail to the final recipient. An example:

Person or business A
℅ Person or business B
Address of B

In Australia and New Zealand c/- is often used in place of .

Translations

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